Sunday 2nd December 2012
Wow December already, how quick does time go, although I wish these next few months would hurry up, I'm really not sure I will survive the winter here, it is so cold already, and they just keep telling us it will get worse, and I have to say I'm so over America, well at least this area, I want to move on.
There is really only two ways to get out of here, the first I mention earlier crossing the North Atlantic and the other is what they call the ICW....which is kinda inland a bit.
We actually studied the maps yesterday, and I got a glimmer of hope, but only to be let down again.
You see there is a lot of bridges to go under most are opening bridges but the very first one is the one we can't get under, it's 65ft high, we always thought are height was the same and maybe at low tide we may just be able to get under, but not to be, the Captain went out and measured again and we are actually over 66ft, now you think a foot yeah that's nothing, but losing that amount of mast would not be fun, especially after you spent weeks getting the new rigging up.
Talking about that what a job it was, man did she put up a fight.
This was going to be a simple job, take off the old rigging, put up the new system, maybe a few days work, no problem.
Boy were we ever wrong, it took weeks just to get the old system off, it was so cold and us all having a fear of heights did not help.
I was the lucky one I only went up the mast once, but the poor Captain spent days up there, in the freezing cold, sometimes when he came down I thought he would never thaw out.
Then it was onto the new system, this came in huge boxes, it reminded me of a huge meccano set, or Lego or something like that.
The hardest thing for the guys was trying to work out where all the pieces went, and it did not help that they sent the wrong bits, and some holes screwed on the wrong side and screws being too wide and so on, but finally after getting the right bits and a lot of cussing it is up, now we wait for the new sails to arrive and just hope they fit.
Oh and we have a very eerie noise coming out of the main boom, it sounds like a spaceship landing every time the wind blows,
Not sure why this is happening and the Captain has tried every thing he can think of to stop it, but so far nothing, we just hope once the sails go on it might stop, I sure hope so it almost drives you crazy.
And so the work continues we have had problems after problems, water heaters almost blowing up, the never ending generator problems, and things deep down in the bilges of this boat that are a never ending repair job.
Some days all I see is butts, as the guys have their heads and bodies deep down there, what seems like days on end, thank god I don't have to go there, I tell you it is one scary place.
I have also started on the last bathroom/ head, that's boatie terms, which is starting to look like a nightmare as well.
It has all these weird angles and the basin was way bigger then the one we are fitting in, which resulted in the Captain having to glue and pack stuff around it, and of cause it seems like the glue does not like the cold weather either, I can totally understand how it feels.
The list just seems to get longer and longer.
Well tomorrow is another day.